A weekly thread about the past
This header is inspired by another encounter with one of the Republican Party’s favorite bad faith arguments about race and racism. Did you know that the Democrats founded the Ku Klux Klan and that Republicans were the Party of Lincoln? … Continue reading The History Thread Considers the Dixiecrat Fallacy
Few people outside of Texas had heard of Barbara Jordan prior to July 25, 1974. Jordan grew up in Houston’s 5th Ward, a poor, overwhelmingly Black neighborhood full of “shotgun houses” managed by white landowners. Her father Ben, was a … Continue reading History Thread: Barbara Jordan Takes Down a President
In 1958, Clennon Washington King, Jr. was a part-time professor at Alcorn State in Mississippi. Son of an activist who’d worked for Booker T. Washington, King generated controversy for calling the NAACP “a tool for conniving whites” while also warning … Continue reading History Thread: James Meredith and the Pride of Ole Miss
When Gary Thomas Rowe moved to Birmingham, Alabama in the 1950s, he desperately wanted to be a policeman. Born in 1933 in Savannah, Rowe spent his twenties helping ATF agents bust Georgia moonshiners in exchange for surplus rifles. He applied … Continue reading History Thread: I Was a Klansman for the FBI
This is adapted from a lyric essay I’ve been writing on and off since 2011. At 11:30 AM on December 17, 2010, a young man approached the office of the governor of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia. He was a fruit … Continue reading The History Thread is Setting Itself on Fire
Hullo, I’m Hobbes, stepping in for today while Agnew steps back. Today is the anniversary of the death of famed imperialist Major-General Charles George Gordon at the siege of Khartoum in the Sudan, 1885, sometimes called “Chinese Gordon” (ah, the … Continue reading The Emergency History Thread is Ever Victorious Until It’s Not
You likely heard that our outgoing President, in one of his last paroxysms of awfulness, released the report of his “1776 Commission” yesterday. This report makes broad claims: “presenting a definitive chronicle of the American founding, a powerful description of … Continue reading God Bless The History Thread
Hoped to get back to more substantial headers this week, but truth be told I’m still processing Nightmare Week and didn’t feel up for writing anything. Feel free to comment and discuss whatever you want (within reason) below. Continue reading The Shell-Shocked History Thread
Welcome to the first History Thread of 2021! Sadly it’s a lazy one, as I didn’t have time to prepare a proper header. But it is the anniversary of Alfred Dreyfus’s degradation, so you can read this piece from the … Continue reading The Degraded History Thread
On December 29, 1890, the Indian Wars climaxed with the Wounded Knee Massacre, where the 7th US Cavalry killed 300 members of the Miniconjou and Hunkpapa Lakota. The massacre’s immediate causes were the government’s decision to dissolve the Great Sioux … Continue reading History Thread: The Last Ghost Dance
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! I didn’t have time to prepare a full article, but I did discover the story of William and Ellen Craft, two slaves from Georgia who made a remarkable escape from captivity in December 1848. … Continue reading The History Thread Escapes!
Today’s History Thread will not be as detailed or nuanced as usual because I am not a trained historian. Nevertheless I will give it my best shot. Today I’d like to talk about a historical event I learned about only … Continue reading The History Thread learns a new thing
Sorry that I didn’t have time to prepare a proper thread this week, but I did find another delightful Whig Party cartoon circa 1844. This one assures us that Henry Clay will beat James K. Polk because Polk will step … Continue reading The History Thread Has Fundamental Objections
This week’s header uses as its starting point a neat article about recent efforts by amateur culinarians to recreate ancient recipes and cooking styles. The main focus is the recreation of Egyptian bread by Seamus Blackley (creator of the XBox!?!) … Continue reading The History Thread Gets That (Egyptian) Bread
On November 24th, 1965 General Joseph Mobutu formally seized power in the Republic of Congo. Mobutu was a member of the Ngbandi people, long looked down upon by Congolese as a backward agrarian people. During the ’50s, he served the … Continue reading History Thread: A Brief History of Mobutu’s Zaire
Another week, another History Thread I didn’t have time to write. Mea culpa, hopefully we’ll return to substantial headers soon. As usual, you’re invited to discuss anything and everything history-related. Continue reading Same Old History Thread
The History Thread returns! We’ve all survived an acrimonious presidential election, so let’s keep it laid back this week. Header is a political cartoon from the 1852 race between Franklin Pierce and Winfield Scott. Hope to return to regular headers … Continue reading The History Thread Gets Whiggy With It
Welcome all! It’s been a busy month here in the History Thread, and after the past few long-form articles I’m making a perfunctory header this week. Next week, I will be taking Election Day off. Mostly because I plan to … Continue reading The History Thread Takes a Break
Few poets achieve lasting fame or cultural impact: in that sense, at least, Ezra Pound deserves notice. The abrasive, brilliant writer from Philadelphia made his mark in the literary salons of London in the 1910s, in Paris during the “Lost … Continue reading History Thread: The Madness of Ezra Pound
On August 30, 1945 two American war corespondents entered Tokyo. The Second World War still hadn’t formally ended – Douglas MacArthur accepted Japan’s surrender two days later – but Clark Lee of International News Service and Harry Brundidge of Cosmopolitan … Continue reading History Thread: The Making of Tokyo Rose
What responsibility do artists have under dictatorships? Nazi Germany, with its obsessive control over entertainment, posed a particularly harsh dilemma to those unable to leave. Those who willingly collaborated, like directors Leni Riefenstahl (Triumph of the Will) and Veit Harlan … Continue reading History Thread: Gustaf Gründgens, Der Schauspieler
